Dell looks beyond metros

A STAFF REPORTER

Calcutta, Aug. 3: Dell India has devised a comprehensive strategy for the consumer and small business segments with focus beyond the metros to the smaller cities. The customer base in such cities is set to touch 1 million over the next five years.

The company has moved to the No.1 position in the domestic PC market with a 23.1 per cent share in the first quarter of the current calendar year, according to International Data Corporation (IDC).

The company is banking on Dell Exclusive Stores of which there are 225 now. The plan is to take them to 400 by March 2015.

It has also tweaked its business model to bring in more franchisees. Additionally, it is bullish on the Dell Express Ship Affiliate, an e-tailer-owned online domain selling Dell devices exclusively, to ramp up sales.

“We are targeting students, youths and working professionals. The challenge for us is to make products available across a vast landscape. Our stores are present across 150 cities. We want to increase presence in multi-brand outlets (MBO) as well. A lot of customers want to experience products in an MBO environment,” said Manish Gupta, sales director, consumer distribution & retail, Dell India.

Small businesses play a key role in Dell’s growth strategy. Vostro laptops lead the pack for such entities as they are easy to configure and are budget-friendly.

For commercial use, it has precision workstations, latitude laptops and Optiplex and Vostro Desktops.

“Our market share in small businesses is 26.2 per cent. The commercial business is doing well with a 40 per cent quarter-on-quarter growth. Consumer growth is over 21 per cent. The industry has not been doing well for the last two quarters but we have done much better. There are critical things we are executing as part of a strategy right now from a consumer perspective,” he said.

In the first quarter of the current calendar year, Dell is the top notebook brand with a 61 per cent share. It was also No. 1 in desktops with a 15.4 per cent share.

Overall, its share in the consumer & small business segment was 21.4 per cent.